QCAD does not have an isometric grid. However, it has a tool that projects a selection of 'flat' elements to an isometric plane. This tool makes it relatively easy to create isometric projections like the one shown in the QCAD book (see book preview at http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad_book.html , starting from the book page 223).

You can also try this with the free demo version of QCAD:
http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad_downloads.html- select some entities (e.g. a rectangle)
- Modify - Isometric Projection
- click reference point
- choose viewing direction in toolbar
- click target location to place projection

I played around with the free edition last night and found how to draw lines at specified angles and length from a snap to starting point. This may even make what I do easier than the Windows program I've been using.

andrew wrote:QCAD does not have an isometric grid. However, it has a tool that projects a selection of 'flat' elements to an isometric plane. This tool makes it relatively easy to create isometric projections like the one shown in the QCAD book (see book preview at http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad_book.html , starting from the book page 223).

You can also try this with the free demo version of QCAD:http://www.ribbonsoft.com/qcad_downloads.html- select some entities (e.g. a rectangle)- Modify - Isometric Projection- click reference point- choose viewing direction in toolbar- click target location to place projection

Somewhat frustrated. Bought the program, so not exactly pre-sale, but relevant to the isometric topic here.

First, I can't start the book preview at page 223 since it only allows viewing up to page 38.

Second, the Qcad manual is lacking an illustration in how to use this feature. I quote:

1.) After starting the tool, the CAD toolbar shows the selection tools. Use them to select the entities you want to project.

What entities? Please give us an example entity as an illustration. If we want to project a rectangular solid do we project faces? How are they laid out initially on the drawing to do this, as a 3-view? Any particular order to the views?

2.)Click the right arrow button in the CAD toolbar to continue.

OK

3.) Set the reference point with the mouse or enter a coordinate in the command line.

What reference point? Please explain things instead of labeling them. "Reference point" is meaningless without an explanation. Reference point for what?

4.)Choose the side of the projection in the options toolbar and enter a segment length. The segment length is used for arcs and circles which are broken up into line segments in the projection.

OK, understand this.

Set the target point of the projection.

Again. what is meant by "target point?"

Do you mean:

"First you will create a 3-view of the solid you want to project. The 3 views will each need to be projected individually and pieced together to form the finished isometric view.

To begin projecting the faces, first choose a 'reference point' on one of the views you created. This reference point can be anywhere on the face you've drawn.

When you choose the reference point, Qcad will immediately draw an isometric view of this face, and will wait for you to specify a "Target" point on your drawing. The reference point and isometric view will then be moved to the target point.

Before doing that be sure to select the type of projection (top, front, or side from the options toolbar at the top of your screen) this face represents in your 3-view. Qcad will project it appropriately."

vtqcad: The QCAD reference manual is indeed not meant as a tutorial. It merely lists the tools available and explains briefly the steps involved in using them. This is only helpful if a user already has a basic idea of what a tool is supposed to do and only needs a hint in the right direction.

The QCAD book on the other hand is written as a tutorial that explains every tool in detail with a lot of examples and hundreds of illustrations. It makes practically no assumptions about previous knowledge or experience with CAD.

So why not include the book in QCAD anyway? Creating such a book is very time consuming and expensive. However, we did not want to increase the price of QCAD for users who don't need such an in-depth tutorial. So we decided to release the book as a separate item for those QCAD users who need more than the reference manual. I hope this makes sense to you.

andrew wrote:vtqcad: The QCAD reference manual is indeed not meant as a tutorial. It merely lists the tools available and explains briefly the steps involved in using them. This is only helpful if a user already has a basic idea of what a tool is supposed to do and only needs a hint in the right direction.

The QCAD book on the other hand is written as a tutorial that explains every tool in detail with a lot of examples and hundreds of illustrations. It makes practically no assumptions about previous knowledge or experience with CAD.

So why not include the book in QCAD anyway? Creating such a book is very time consuming and expensive. However, we did not want to increase the price of QCAD for users who don't need such an in-depth tutorial. So we decided to release the book as a separate item for those QCAD users who need more than the reference manual. I hope this makes sense to you.

Poor program documentation is no less expensive to produce than good documentation. Poor documentation invents pointless new jargon in preference to clearly explaining an operation in natural language. Definitions tend to be circular in poor documentation, and require extensive cross referencing of other definitions, or earlier explanations in a sequential format. This methodology is far more appropriate to print media than a program's help system.

A natural language explanation in a help system does not have to be any longer or more involved than adding jargon and then defining (or worse failing to define) that jargon in a sequential manual system.

A program is a collection of things, including help documentation, not just the code.

A proper program attempts to avoid the need for documentary explanation by using intuitive GUI elements. That's the reason for the invention of the GUI in the first place. SmallTalk was invented to reduce or eliminate the need for manuals, modes and jargon

Where graphic methods are insufficient, help documentation, preferably contextual, should be sufficient for a newcomer to the program to perform ANY normal program function. If it is not, the program is at fault just as much as if the code was bad. A programmer who requires extensive lookups to external manuals is not doing his job. Saying it is tedious, expensive or time consuming to do so is an excuse which basically says that the burden of tedium, expense, and time should be placed on the user.

Unfortunately the selling of manuals and tutorials in the CAD industry is a widespread and lucrative encouragement to poor help system function and internal shipped documentation.

This discussion is a few weeks old, but I feel these comments are a little unfair.

vtqcad wrote:... help documentation, preferably contextual, should be sufficient for a newcomer to the program to perform ANY normal program function.

Documentation helps the user to discover how the application works, it is unreasonable to expect it to teach technical drawing, or even to act as an introduction to CAD in general. A user familiar with CAD will not have much problem understanding the qcad prompts -- even if sometimes a little experimentation is needed to establish the best working method. A "newcomer" will need to invest time and possibly money to learn the basic skills, and I believe it is unreasonable to expect any complex application to remove the need for that learning.

andrew wrote:... We believe that at EUR 39 for QCAD with e-book and EUR 42 for QCAD with printed book, we provide a very competitive package indeed.

I had not even noticed the e-book, and I would say it is fantastic value even without it. Qcad is the most convenient and accessible 2-D CAD I have ever encountered.